


These red roses I cut for you

by I_am_sorry



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Feelings, M/M, Vampire Hunter Iwaizumi, Vampire Hunters, Vampire Oikawa, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 19:32:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5838145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_am_sorry/pseuds/I_am_sorry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blood. Red and overflowing –iron and earth mixed effortlessly. He knows this smell. It’s not usual and it’s what he thinks home would smell like altogether. He knows this smell, knows this person, and knows green and green and green. Oikawa’s eyes go red in response to the scent. He sighs tiredly and finally jumps in front of the person whose blood has been singing to him from many miles now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	These red roses I cut for you

Blood. Red and overflowing –iron and earth mixed effortlessly. He knows this smell. It’s not usual and it’s what he thinks home would smell like altogether. He knows this smell, knows this person, and knows green and green and green. Oikawa’s eyes go red in response to the scent. He sighs tiredly and finally jumps in front of the person whose blood has been singing to him from many miles now.

“Iwa-chan” He says tilting his head.

Iwaizumi looks up (bright green) from his spot sitting under the shade of a tree. “What are you doing here?”

Oikawa shrugs. “Smelt the blood from miles away” ‘I know it was yours’ he doesn’t add as he looks at the ugly slash in Iwaizumi’s leg “You will have company soon if you don’t move”

Iwaizumi snorts. “Yeah well, not much I can do”

Oikawa swallows hard. “I can help you with that”

“I called for help, the association will send back up so” Iwaizumi looks down. “You should be going before they start coming”

“You are an easy target like this” He wants to help him, maybe heal the wound –he is not very good at healing like his sister, his control over magic is more of the destructive source. Destruction and unhappiness but he can try, for this person at least. Anything really. “I can help to stop the bleeding until they come”

“You are insane” Iwaizumi says incredulously and Oikawa thinks maybe he will let him. “A member of Seijou’s royal family so far from the borders helping a hunter”

“More like a help between two royal houses. I know you are not a simple hunter, Iwa-chan”

Iwaizumi sighs at that. “You know what, fine”

Oikawa smiles low and truthful, he will stop the bleeding and with that, Iwaizumi will stop being as obvious as a target at least until the other hunters find him. “What are you doing here anyway?” Oikawa asks starting to close the gash with some of his magic (low blue burning at his fingertips). “So far from the association and in no man’s land?”

“Karasuno clan has been moving west and something is not boding well with it. We know objectively all of you are at a war. All the clans I mean but they seem to be pursuing something else” Iwaizumi flinches at his touch and he has to close something inside him (that screams in agony) at that.

“I think it will be enough” He says finally moving away. “I think I should be going--”

“Oikawa”

He turns around at the call and sees him (really sees him, every little detail of him) after months of just wondering and remembering, green. Iwaizumi Hajime, vampire hunter, rank S, or what his intelligence would call a General –barely twenty-three. One of the most dangerous and lethal of the association, descendant of one of the remaining families who are not mixed with humans; pure hunter blood, wearing the usual white jacket of uniform that the association provides, black boots and brown cargo pants.

“Thanks” He says finally and somehow that makes it worst.

“Anytime, Iwa-chan” He answers nonchalant and starts walking again. He can no longer smell the blood or the earth –this familiar aroma of home going to crisp air and nothing more. He stops some miles ahead and looks up at the sky, it’s dark and there are no stars to be seen.

“You know this will kill you one day” A familiar voice says behind him.

“If the war doesn’t do it first, you mean” He answers flippantly at the other.

“He is from the royal blood of the hunters, Oikawa” The person (his friend) says reprovingly. “Off all the people, hunters and vampires, why him? Seriously? You want to get killed or what? To tell you the truth I’m surprised he hasn’t thrust that lovely white katana of his in your heart by now”

“Makki” He says finally. “Have you seen the stars lately?”

“The fuck?”

“Just you know the stars” He repeats slowly.

“You are very bad at this love shit” Hanamaki answers back shaking his head. “You will have to get married to secure succession, you know? Hell, he will have to get married to secure his blood as well; whatever you think this, this thing you have for him is…it can’t be”

“I don’t intend to take a mate; my sister will carry the succession. I have talked with her about it”

“You are impossible” Hanamaki says giving up on the topic completely. “Let’s go home” He says finally jumping up at the trees again.

The problem with that Oikawa think as he jumps behind his friend is that he doesn’t have a place called home anymore; everything was burned to ashes (the village, his future, his hope) and the only thing he has left is sitting miles away waiting for his own people (own kin) to pick him up. Home, home is just a distant dream now, just as these feelings that drown him in green.

\---

"We have to stop meeting like this” Oikawa says looking down to where Iwaizumi is crunched over spitting blood. He coughs one last time before looking up, katana gripped tightly in his hand. “Very Impressive” He adds looking around the hunter to all the bodies scattered around, different clans, all low ranking vampires –mad ones, he guesses.

“Are you scared?” Iwaizumi asks finally, wiping his mouth and standing up.

“Not really” He says circling around Iwaizumi (a predator ready to strike). “It’s different to fight mad ones, just empty shells driven by thirst than A level vampires, you know?”

“I do” Iwaizumi says calmly and Oikawa thinks of the news that brought him here in the first place. Iwaizumi Hajime managed to kill a member of the royal family of Karasuno. Every clan is shaken and surprised for a hunter (alone) to manage such a fit. They want Iwaizumi’s head and Oikawa… Oikawa just came to warn him. “You have a price on your head now”

Iwaizumi nods. “Are you here for that?” And for a slight moment he thinks he sees Iwaizumi lower his katana in a position of surrender –which has to be his imagination because if it was true, if Iwa-chan by some strange reason was willing to not fight (not fight him) and had the intention of letting Oikawa finish him without even trying to defend himself then the council would jump at the opportunity and they would, they would…

Oikawa shakes his head wildly. “No, No. Of course not. You know better than that, Iwa-chan”

“She just asked me” Iwaizumi says after a while, Oikawa stills. “She pleaded me, really before she went mad, she said she was sorry but she didn’t want Shimizu to see her like that”

“Shimizu Kiyoko?” He asks just to be sure.

“Yeah” Iwaizumi is looking at his weapon now –still dripping with blood.

“Isn’t she a hunter?” Rank R, good at healing, mildly dangerous. “Why would she…”

“They were lovers, I think” Iwaizumi says finally and Oikawa’s eyes widen at this new information.

“I didn’t-”

Iwaizumi shrugs. “I just thought if I was in her place I would have asked for the same. It would have been painful for Kiyoko to see her like that and even worse knowing there was nothing that could be done so I just…”

“I see” Oikawa concedes slowly. “Iwa-chan, look, I just came to tell you to be careful, okay?”

“Why?” Bright green eyes look at him –searching, waiting.

“Iwa-chan, look I just wan—”

“Why?” He repeats again (demanding and Oikawa would give him his heart on platter without doubt but not this, never this), walking forward towards him. Oikawa wants to run, he wants to turn around and forget he was here but he remains glued to his spot instead.

“Why?” He asks just one last time (all the fight gone from his tone, just tiredness and resignation now) in Oikawa’s personal space.

“I don’t want you to get hurt” He says finally, feeling really small all of sudden looking directly at calm green.

Iwaizumi sighs at that, lowers his head and steps aside –the katana lastly secure in its white sheath. “I have to get going, Trashykawa”

He manages a small smile at that (It’s fake, of course). “See you soon, Iwa-chan” He says cheerily and both know is a lie.

\---

Seven months. He knows it’s just silly to keep counting when he knows time for him is relative but –seven months still. He hasn’t seen him in seven months. He watches the blood tablet dissolve inside the wine and thinks of all the things he should have said long ago. The taste is awful, as always but it calms his well-controlled thirst.

“Oikawa-san?” Kunimi asks politely knocking on his door.

“Yeah?” He says (Kunimi is a good kid, a messenger sometimes).

“I have an envelope for you; Hanamaki-san left it today before going on a mission”

“Give it to me” He says as permission for the other to enter his rooms (he prefers the most secluded area of the mansion to live and sometimes it gives the idea of him not really want to be disturbed).

Kunimi enters prudently and hands him the white packet swiftly. “That would be all” He says smiling and Kunimi nods understanding the dismissal.

The envelope has the seal of the hunter’s association on the front. He looks at it curiously and opens it tearing it in the process, still what is inside remains intact. An invitation, a wedding invitation, two of the more powerful hunter households are getting merged (Hanamaki stole this from some other hunter or a human with political influence, probably).

Iwaizumi is getting married to another hunter and Oikawa thinks ‘I should have told him’

The invitation is beautiful (white with gold bold letters and intricate patterns). He wonders how she is. If she is beautiful? If Iwa-chan loves her?

Hanamaki is probably laughing at him right now but all in all, he is glad Iwaizumi is being happy somewhere out there. He thinks he will send them flowers, a big bouquet (white, white and white with a touch of green). He thinks maybe she will like them, maybe. He won’t write his name on the card of course just his congratulations.

\---

He doesn’t send the bouquet in the end. He remembers Iwa-chan saying he liked red better anyway when they were kids. He can’t go to the funeral, or close to where all the hunters are mourning for her, he knows (guesses) Iwaizumi is there inside crying for a life that couldn’t be.

Oikawa want’s to say he is sorry. He wants to apologize in behalf of his species; he wants to apologize in behalf of the Fukurodani clan, in behalf of Akaashi Keiji (the one who took her life away). He wants to apologize for what he is.

But he can’t get there and even if he could (somehow) he doesn’t think Iwaizumi would like to see him right now.

“It’s dangerous for you to be here” He turns around quickly (heartbeat wild with surprise).

“Iwa-chan?” He asks and sure enough there he is, usual jacket in place and the katana safely secured in his back. Iwaizumi doesn’t look sad, or stricken with grief. He looks normal enough.

“It was arranged” He says quietly as if he owes him an explanation. “We were told that it was necessary for our bloodlines to continue pure. The association is pretty uptight about shit like that. She looked hopeful, had a crush or something, I accepted but it’s not like I knew her. She was a good person, I think”

“I, I don’t-” Oikawa blinks stupidly. He feels like crying. He doesn’t know why. “I’m sorry”

“You send us flowers” Iwaizumi says unimpressed.

“W-what?” No he didn’t, he couldn’t bring himself to do it in the end. “I didn’t send you anything”

“I know your handwriting”

“It wasn’t…” Hanamaki told him to write something for him in ‘that pretentious way you have with elegant cursive’ a blank card, a congratulations of sorts. “I’m sorry for that too”

“It’s okay. I thought it was shitty of you to send a bouquet of forget-me-not’s anyway” Oikawa want’s to say that’s not true, he wants to say Hanamaki did that for him and even though if he had he would have sent white roses, for hope. For happiness. He has always wanted for Iwaizumi to be happy.

“I’m going to go now”

“Okay”

“Iwa-chan, one last thing” He says gently. “I managed to get this for you” It’s a pendant, her pendant hanging from a necklace. Akaashi took it after he delivered the final blow as a symbol (he had always been the most merciless of the lot of them). “I’m sorry” He says again after he hands him the chain.

“How did you…?”

Oikawa smiles wickedly. “I have my ways. Did you know Iwa-chan that even between vampires I’m considered one of the most beautiful?” Just below Akaashi of course (with Kuroo an insinuation like that might have worked but not with Fukurodani’s leader). The truth is he had to pay many coins of gold for it.

“Yeah” Iwaizumi says simply and for a moment he looks so defeated, Oikawa wants to take back his words. “I’m joking; I paid for it with gold”

“But you are” Iwaizumi repeats quietly.

“No, I was just-”

“Even here, the other hunters… Vampires are known for being beautiful but you, I have heard them saying you are one of the most beautiful and deadly they have ever seen”

“Are you calling me pretty, Iwa-chan?” He half jokes and expects for Iwaizumi to lose his temper and call him an idiot but it doesn’t happen.

“Yeah” He says finally looking at the chain on his fingers. “I have to go back” To the funeral obviously.

Oikawa nods.

\---

“I’m planning on retiring, after the war I mean, if I manage to survive” Iwaizumi says slowly, looking at the half slice of cake served on his plate. “Moving to a neutral city, where coexistence is allowed” A city like this one in which they are currently standing, eating in a place that allows hunters and vampires alike.

Oikawa looks at him. They are talking about something more here –two conversations veiled as one. He shifts in his seat –it’s a nice restaurant this, full with people and laughter and blissful ignorance of the things happening outside; the war that is tearing to pieces clans and hunters and humans equally. “I’m sure it would be a great loss to the association”

“They would live” Iwaizumi says flatly picking at his cake with half intent.

“Probably” Oikawa answers looking down at his own food –a plate with soft heated sweet bread, he doesn’t need to eat (not really) but he isn’t averse to it either. He always liked milk bread anyway. “I would visit” He says at least, quietly.

Iwaizumi sighs. “Do you remember when we were kids?”

“And I was human?” Oikawa supplies lightly even if it’s anything but that.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Iwaizumi says (eyes narrowed). “You proposed” He finishes tersely.

Oikawa quietens. He wants to say ‘No’, wants to say he doesn’t remember such a thing happening ever –because (I’m too pretty for you, Iwa-chan). Wants to tease and laugh it off but Iwaizumi knows him too well and he would be able to tell his lie. This is something he hasn’t remembered in a long time now, doesn’t know how to feel about it, and doesn’t know what to do with it so he just shrugs. “I did but we were kids”

“You looked pretty serious about it back then” Iwaizumi bits back and he seems angry, at life, at circumstances, at him. Oikawa doesn’t blame him, not for the anger at least.

In truth, he was serious (not that he is about the say that now but he was). He remembers hurting hands, the dirt on his knees as he kneeled on the grass cutting the most beautiful roses he could see in the backyards of all the caring mothers who had let him take a few roses from them. He remembers the sun, the sweat and the humid sweet smell. The effort he took in picking each rose (all of them red). The blood on his hands from inexperience at handing thorns, he remembers being twelve and in love.

He remembers how Iwa-chan had looked at him after he had handed him the many roses he had managed to cut, like he was crazy but also like he was something really, really precious.

He had asked then. He had asked him if once they were old enough Iwaizumi would marry him, he had hided his bloodied hands too but Iwaizumi had been able to tell, he was hurt. He had yelled at him then for being an idiot but had bandaged his cuts with patience. He had really never answered.

“Things change” Is all he manages to say.

“No,” Iwaizumi says pushing his plate apart and leaving a few coins as tip. “they don’t”

“Hinata, a new hunter is waiting for me around here. I was assigned to train him. The association thinks he has talent, something special, I don’t know but maybe I think he is what we have been waiting to happen so the war, it will end and when it does I’m leaving all this hunters and vampires shit behind me. I’ll get a house and I’ll wait for you”

“You can't stand me to touch you” And Oikawa understands is a low blow but he has to make him see, to make him understand. “Your blood is poison to me” there’s no way for them.

Iwaizumi flinches at that but keeps going anyway. “We would find a way”

“Vampires need the blood link, you know” It would be awful for him. Iwaizumi’s blood is the one he has always dreamed to taste. It would make him mad with thirst to be so close and yet so far. “Sex would be also a no thing and no, don’t tell me you have never thought of it because frankly Iwa-chan, we both know that’s not how it is”

Iwaizumi closes his eyes and brings a hand to cover his face (which is getting an interesting shade of red). “We would work it out somehow” He all but grumbles. “I- I have heard of beverages… they, they let you –as a hunter, I mean, yeah my blood recoils at the thought of you touching me or me touching you but that’s my blood not me and these potions, they let you kind of in a drugged state but you feel- feel good and yeah don’t look at me like that”

“So you kind of want me to fuck you when you are passed out of drugs?” Oikawa states simply and doesn’t know if he should feel insulted or touched or –definitely not kind of turned on. “I hate you, Iwa-chan”

“Yeah, that’s well… it wouldn’t be an issue, and about the blood bond--”

Oikawa sighs. “Just stop it” In theory it all sounds good but reality is, is different. It will end badly and it might be cowardice on his part but you can’t miss something you have never had. “You would go mad trying to fight your instinct to kill me and it would be even worse with me biting you”

There are stories, Oikawa has heard of hunters who have tried this before (not low-level ones like Shimizu) but hunters like Iwa-chan. It never lasts long, not for them. They become insane and sick and in the end they hate the person who made them forget they were hunters. Iwaizumi would hate him. “We can’t”

“It’ll be a nice house” Is all Iwaizumi says back.

\---

All he sees is red, liquid and dense with a taste of iron. Slippery and dripping, every inhale of breath hurts. He feels thirsty, his mouth feels dry and his throat feels parched. He wants to drink, he wants to mitigate this ash-like flavor on his tongue and sleep.

His body aches, raw and ugly. He has broken ribs and a big wound on his chest, he wonders if it’s enough to kill him. He thought maybe he was stronger than that. Shiratorizawa proved him wrong. He might never be adequate. He coughs weakly –and feels more blood (his own blood drenching him in a mocking way).

“Oikawa” He knows who it is even before seeing him. He wants to tell him to go away. Hunters, hunters are coming for him probably –felt his signature energy weaken and are going to show up to finish Ushiwaka’s job. Iwaizumi wouldn’t let them and that’s why he is here. “Fuck, come on, Oikawa talk to me!”

He really wants to but he can’t form the words and he feels hazy, light in a way that makes him just want to curl up and give in to fatigue. “Don’t!” Iwaizumi hisses and he has to snap his eyes open at the command. “Don’t go to sleep” This time his voice is softer somehow but still rough with worry.

“I need you to drink,” Iwaizumi says urgently as he pushes up his jacket sleeve and holds out his wrist to Oikawa’s mouth. “just a little even if its poison it won’t kick in until you are regenerating and it won’t kill you, unless you drink me dry so go and drink, dammit!” Iwa-chan looks scared, wild and anxious. “They are coming and I need you to start healing before moving you to somewhere safe or you will die from blood loss”

Drink. He can feel Iwaizumi’s pulse beneath the skin. Every little heartbeat and he wants, he really wants to but it will hurt him. “No” He rasps and he hears Iwaizumi curse as he makes noise unsheathing his katana with precision. He wonders if Iwaizumi will be the one finishing the job then (Oikawa wouldn’t really mind) and--

He takes a sharp inhale of breath at the smell reaching his nostrils. Its blood –Iwaizumi’s blood and as he focus his gaze he can see the little droplets trailing down Iwaizumi’s arm, slowly and carefully.

He spams with the effort it takes him to not reach out (to taste). Oikawa’s eyes are glowing red and something primal inside him is demanding to him to go and bite, lick the blood that’s being offered to him, it will heal him and it will poison him altogether. In the end he does give in, and savors, bites down hard and tries to not notice Iwaizumi’s labored breathing. He drinks until his mouth starts to feel humid again and then passes out.

\---

Oikawa was human once. It seems like a long time ago now but maybe is just his perception. He thinks he doesn’t look really different, he stills prefer to dress with human clothes –the black turtle neck he favors and faded blue jeans; he knows he is not the picture of royalty in them but he feels comfortable enough. It was quick the ‘you are not-human-thing’; he just remembers thirst and terror in wide sunny green eyes and nothing else. He had been fourteen and his sister had showed up in his village and told him how his parents had let him hidden there for safety reasons. She had told him she was sorry he had been alone for so long but that for now on he would always had her. Then there had been fire and smoke and hunters approaching and the realization that he had been living in a township full of them, that Iwaizumi’s parents (the ones that had raised him like their own son) were hunters, that Iwa-chan himself was supposed to be a hunter—

Oikawa hadn’t been able to say goodbye at that time.

He opens his eyes slowly, blinking to adjust at the morning light. He is resting on a makeshift bed in a wide unfurnished room. He looks around slowly and takes everything in, the place looks like a house, an empty one.

“You are awake” Iwaizumi is stepping inside with a tray of food in his hands and Oikawa bites back the impulse to say he doesn’t need to eat. It’s a human thing to do and sometimes he thinks Iwaizumi likes to cling to that.  
“Iwa-chan” He says lightly as if it’s just another pleasing day.

“You were out for three days” Iwaizumi informs him matter of fact, handing him down the tray (fruit sliced in cubes and water). “You weren’t healing until yesterday even though I kept you feed”

He licks his lips at that and can still the tang of blood in them –almost bittersweet. “How did you manage to stand me biting you?” He asks and is genuinely curious; he doesn’t remember anything since the battle with Ushiwaka-chan.

Iwaizumi shrugs. “I told you about brews, remember?”

Oikawa searches for his eyes then and Iwaizumi holds his gaze, it looks glassed and feverish and so very, very green. “Are you hungry?” Iwaizumi questions and he understands he is not referring to the fruit on his lap. Iwaizumi is offering blood. Iwaizumi has been feeding him three days straight fighting his own nature and getting drugged for his sake.

He wants to refuse if only for some mismatched form of guilt but the words get stuck on his throat and Iwaizumi is already shedding his jacket and getting close to where he is. He is wearing a black sleeveless t-shirt and kneeling in front of him and tilting his head, exposing his neck in one lean move.

Oikawa can’t breathe. “Just do it” There’s urgency in Iwaizumi’s voice and he doesn’t know if it’s for dreading it or wanting it.

When he finally bites down it feels like homecoming. Iwaizumi’s blood is alluring in ways he can’t explain –it probably is just because he is Iwa-chan or some form of last effort nature has given a hunter whose blood is poison to a vampire. He drinks slowly measuring the drops and senses Iwaizumi going pliant in his arms.

It seems like eternity but in reality it takes but minutes.

He lets go carefully, licking softly the red drops trailing Iwaizumi’s neck.

“Thank you” He says sluggishly hiding his face in the other’s chest, Iwaizumi doesn’t answer at first but then he is taking Oikawa’s face in his hands, kissing him roughly and pushing him down on the makeshift bed.

Oikawa goes down willingly and kisses back, closing his eyes and thinking of forever.

\---

He wants to ask but doesn’t want to know. ‘Have you done this before?’

It’s silly and Iwaizumi seems to know what he is doing moving carefully inside him. In retrospective he shouldn’t be thinking of this, shouldn’t been thinking of anything but the heat and the sounds of slicked skin on skin –with Iwaizumi’s blood still on his lips- but he wants to know, he has never been good at handling jealousy.

“Iwa-chan” He gasps because he has never done this before and he feels like he is melting.

“What?” Iwaizumi pants, pausing all the movement of his hips and looking disbelievingly at him (green eyes dazed but with enough recognition in them). “I can’t believe even in this you are still thinking”

“Have you…I, um?” Oikawa bites his lower lip. “Have you with something else?”

Iwaizumi blinks for a moment and rolls his hips leisurely and Oikawa cries out. “What?” He asks again and Oikawa thinks less.

“Have you done this before?” He waits and tries to calm down his heart and everything that tells him it shouldn’t matter and by all means he should be enjoying himself no matter what.

“Not really” Iwaizumi says finally and if he were any other person Oikawa would surely think of it as a lie. “I tried once but couldn’t really do it” He says and doesn’t seem bothered by it. “What about you?”

Oikawa is familiar with what is said about his people –the sex is all but second nature for them, decadence and sensuality- and wonders if Iwaizumi believes he has fucked more than the half of the vampires he knows. Would he mind? Or would he be relieved to see Oikawa has ever only wanted him. “No. I haven’t”

“I guessed as much” Iwaizumi replies and sets the rhythm again, slowly as if he never wants to let go. Every move, every kiss, every sigh, Oikawa knows he will commit it to memory.

It doesn’t take long. He comes first arching his back and curling his toes in the provisional mattress as Iwaizumi keeps fucking into him.

Later when they are both cooling off and snuggling close Oikawa thinks about old legends and wants to sniff at the absurdity of it and the numbing truthfulness encompassing it as well. “Do you know Iwa-chan, there’s an old tale used to scare younger vampires about hunters?” His voice is soft as he talks.

“Hmm?”

“About a beautiful hunter who managed to deceit a vampire. He fell in love with her at first sight but she refused him. She was cruel to him every time they met and yet she always let him live. He pinned for her many moons and then one day she finally accepted his feelings, they had sex and the he fell asleep…it’s said then that while he did she reaped out his heart and eat it bit by bit”

“It’s awful” Iwaizumi frowns at him. “Who would want to eat you anyway, Shittykawa?”

Oikawa just smiles (its real this time). “I know” And yet he would definitely let him.

\---

It’s getting really bad, everything… it suddenly feels like he can’t read what the other clans moves are going to be. His analytical mind is having trouble keeping up. He is breaking down and it seems to be only one solution left. Sejou is starting to fall into pieces and the war it’s still going on, Oikawa is starting to panic. He doesn’t know he has no idea and that’s the worse, not knowing. His sister is talking of surrender, Nekoma is talking about new alliances and Shiratorizawa is always one step ahead, they are going to win, the conservative clans are going to win and when that happens, humans will be made slaves and hunters… he doesn’t want to think what is going to happen to the hunters.

The clock is ticking, time is running out.

\---

The house where Iwaizumi healed him Oikawa learns is actually Iwaizumi’s own. He got it not so long ago with Oikawa (them) in mind. He wants to laugh at the naivety of it but at the same time he wants it to be true so badly it hurts. All the things he cares for, all the things he has…he would give it all for a chance of this becoming a reality.

“I hate the color of the painting” He says petulantly at the door. He was here four weeks ago bloodied and defeated after his fight against Ushiwaka. All of it seems distant now.

Iwaizumi snorts. “You can repaint it once we move in but all the work is on your own, I’m not helping you”

Oikawa turns around. “You are here”

“I sensed you” Is simple and so very much like Iwa-chan, he feels like smiling.

“I will definitely paint it white with a touch of green” Oikawa muses aloud. “What about the fence-garden?”

Iwaizumi shrugs. “I don’t know”

“Maybe brown”

“Or light blue” Iwaizumi says at his right. They are both stepping on the street, looking at the uninhabited house from the outside and for a moment, Oikawa wants to picture it, his future here in this place with its glass windows and wood doors and the feeling of belonging. It looks a lot like his childhood home, perhaps Iwaizumi bought it for that reason alone. They could grow old here, if only…

“I want new furnishings and a reading chair” He chirps in his most annoying voice. He wants to play difficult and see if Iwaizumi will last before snapping at him. “After all I’m not just some random vampire, I’m royalty and I want—”

“You will get it along with the bill” Iwaizumi says perfectly calm and Oikawa needs to believe it so hard, he is willing to lie to himself.

“You are no fun, Iwa-chan” Oikawa ‘t’sks’ “You need to be romantic here”

Iwaizumi sighs. “I’m willing to split it in halves then”

“Iwa-chan?”

“What?”

“I want you to know that whatever happens, I was happy here” He says finally. Oikawa doesn’t think all of his wishes will come true before he dies, but he can make do with what has been granted already. “You have always made me happy”

“What are you talking about?” Iwaizumi is scowling at him, his green eyes with a shade of worry.

“It’s a really pretty house, Iwa-chan”

\---

“You are weak,” Akaashi says without an intonation of emotion in his voice. “I can smell the hunter’s blood on you”

Oikawa wants to flinch but he doesn’t. Iwa-chan has nothing to do with this. “It’s poison for us and yet you drank” Akaashi looks at him blandly and he can feel the contempt in his voice. ”What do you want?”

“A favor”

Akaashi looks at him again with that same unnerving expression of his and for the first time since he came to the Fukorodany’s mansion, he wonders if it was a good call coming here alone or not. “In exchange of what?”

Oikawa licks his lips, he cringes internally at what he is about to do. He will always have a soft spot for hunters even if they are not Iwa-chan. “Bokuto Koutaro” He ponders idly what can be so special about that person to affect Akaashi so much. All he knows about Bokuto Koutaro is that he is another class S hunter.

Akaashi narrows his eyes; he looks dangerous and already thin in patience. “Do you have him?”

“I know where he is”

Akaashi nods, something unreadable in his gaze. “I’m listening”

\---

Karasuno will help his cause without even knowing it. Oikawa is glad it ends today.  
Ushijima Wakatoshi will lose.

\---

Drip. Drip. Drip. It’s leaking. It’s still red and the smell of it makes his stomach curl with dread. He fights the thirst and jumps faster. He knows this smell, it shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t be here. It shouldn’t be this way, Akaashi promised—

Drip. Drip. Drip. The heartbeat is slowing, if he loses more than three liters, he will die. Red, he doesn’t want to see it now. Hot and squishy, he wants to throw up. Forest green, he remembers forest green, please, please don’t let it be just red, don’t—

Drip. Drip. Drip. Please make it stop—

Drip. Drip. Drip. It’s late, far too late, it’s pooling on the mud. It’s staining the white. All of what used to be white now is drenched in red. The katana is broken in five shards. The steel shining in the dirt mocking him.

“Just finish it” Iwaizumi says between short breaths, he is kneeling on the ground soaked in red. His pulse is low. “Oikawa, just finish him”

\---

“Tobio-chan will do it well” Oikawa says reassuringly at all the others. He doesn’t want the position, he doesn’t want anything anymore. His eyes are red from tears not the usual thirst and he feels old. He feels so, so old. He has survived a war and yet –he didn’t win, not really.

“I’m sure he will be a great king” Oikawa smiles and notices he has almost forgotten how to do it. “I’m not fit for the role anyway” Tobio-chan and the shrimpy will have to do. Even if the council presses for him, he will still decline.

The heads of the clans talk between them and finally nod their agreement.

“What now?” Hanamaki says after all the talking is done.

Oikawa shrugs. “I’m going home”

Hanamaki averts his gaze at that. “Okay” He says and Oikawa knows his friend is really sad for him.

\---

The flowers smell sweet and are still damp from the morning dew when he reaches them. Oikawa looks around his garden and of all the things he has planted the only ones that have already blossomed are the white roses. He sighs and picks carefully the most beautiful; he picks enough for it to be a bouquet. He hopes next year, he will have more variety.

He doesn’t mind the thorns, not this time, not really. He ends up with scratched hands and enough color to make his roses red. The blood on his hands gives the roses pink hues and even makes some of them look carmine. It doesn’t really hurt. He gathers them in his arms prudently and walks towards the light-blue fence of his garden, opening the little door of it slowly.

He remembers picking roses when he was a kid, it feels so different now. They are still for the same person nonetheless.

He steps out and thinks about repairing the screeching sound the door makes at moving. He will repaint the fence this year as well along with the house –white walls and green doors. He will also fix his reading chair.

He walks a long distance and says ‘Hi’ to the people who wave at him. They have always been polite to him. It will probably rain today which is good news to the flowers in his hands. It’s not a nice day to be outside.

The grave seems clean enough once Oikawa gets close. White marble engraved with green letters and the symbol of the association. He knows more people aside from him come to pay their respects every year so it’s not really surprising to find some flowers already decorating the place. He smiles quietly at seeing a bouquet of forget-me-not’s carefully placed at one side, he will thank Hanamaki later. There’s also another singularity he notes immediately between all the other colorful vegetation, a single black rose.

He doesn’t blame Akaashi, and it’s good of him to do this. For a brief moment he wonders what is of the lives of the clans now. He hasn’t asked, hasn’t wanted to know. He wonders what happened to Bokuto Kotarou and if Tobio-chan is faring well. If he has already confessed to the shrimpy. But it all disappears in a moment, swallowed by the constant buzz in his ears and void inside his heart. It always does.

The sky is getting dark so he lowers his head and reads the initials all over again; his throat closes up at that. It’s been five years and it still feels like it was only yesterday.

His eyes sting as he clutches the roses close to his chest. Big fat drops of rain start falling then and Oikawa feels grateful it will mix with his tears.

“I hope you like them this year as well, Iwa-chan” He says mutedly as he lowers the bouquet in his arms towards polished stone. A great number of them are already deep red from the exposure to his hands (he doesn’t heal as quickly now), some other few remain pink. He remembers another life then –a minute before his eyes, children’s laughter, two wood swords and a green crocodile plushy; the village alive with sounds and both of them hiding from Iwaizumi’s mother after eating all the cookies. He remembers his very first friend and what used to be his favorite color in the world. Green like the wild leaves of the forest, green like the depths of the still waters at dawn, like one of the most beautiful places he has seen in his entire life, some distant part with thick foliage and high canopies of trees with the sunshine lazily seeping through. He remembers falling in love and refusing to see it, he remembers—

Iwaizumi Hajime, childhood best friend, brave hunter and Oikawa’s dearest person.

-He will always be remembered for his courage- it’s what the white marble says.

Oikawa closes his eyes, his cheeks are wet (he wants to believe is the rain's doing but he knows better).

Iwa-chan won’t be ever back and the only consolation Oikawa has is knowing there’s enough poison accumulated in his blood to keep him away from never dying. Iwa-chan last gift, something close to humanity but not quite there yet.

He opens his eyes at least and looks at his roses, looks at how even between all the water coating them they stay red.

**Author's Note:**

> I... notes, later with editing.


End file.
